A JOURNEY TO INTEGRITY - ADVENT 2017 - DAY 16

Integrity... to realise the God-with-us

Third Monday in Advent

Jer 23: 5-8; Mt 1: 18-24

There are those who make religion a fairy tale or a horror story. The recent times have seen bands and bands of such people, writing, preaching, proclaiming, shouting at the top of their voice about signs and events, mysteries and milestones...all exciting but so shallow and Un-Christ-ian! It is not for us to know the time and the hour...but the call is to be prepared and to be alert, watching and praying constantly, that we may never miss when the Lord visits us.

That visit is not something about which we would shudder and shiver, if we live our every moment according to the will of the One who has commissioned us: that is Integrity. Not putting up a show or a performance for the moment of truth but to evolve a lifestyle that realises the permanent presence of God with us!  

If we are true and honest about our experience with God, we would find God and Godly signs and God's call to act, every moment of our lives! It is all around us... in faces that surround us, in events that envelope us, in experiences that beckon our choice and in persons who challenge our priorities. 

The Lord of Integrity does not seek to show signs for the sake of begging praise from us, for the Lord needs no one to recognise or affirm! But it is we who need the Lord and the Lord is ever present at our side. Let us be convinced of the fact that the Lord is present in our days, living with us, walking beside us all the way! And let this be our prayer that we may never miss the Lord of integrity, the God-with-us. 

Let us learn to receive that presence, realise it everyday and rejoice in it!